Cultural Resources Management - National Register Eligibility

National Register Eligibility

One common task in Cultural Resource Management is to determine whether specific properties are eligible for listing as a National Heritage Site on the National Register of Historic Places. Reasons for listing are often to enhance public awareness or for conservation.

In the US, in order to classify and protect something on the National Register as a cultural resource, there are many laws and regulators to look to:

• Authorities for all types of cultural resources:
  • The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)
  • Executive Order 12898 (Environmental Justice)

• Historic Preservation Authorities:
  • The National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA)
  • Historic Sites Act (HAS)
  • Executive Order 13006 (Priority to use of urban historic properties)
  • Section 4(f) of the Department of Transportation Act
  • The Federal tax code

• Archaeological Authorities:
  • The Antiquities Act of 1906
  • The Archaeological Resources Protection Act (ARPA)
  • The Archaeological Data Preservation Act of 1974
  • The Abandoned Shipwrecks Act (ASA)

• Historical Documents Authorities
  • The Federal Records Act

Using the above authorities one then will see whether the property is eligible for the National Register. There are four criteria for determining eligibility. Broadly speaking, the criteria examine whether the property:

• is associated with broad patterns of the past (criterion "a"), for example, a farm house that was part of the Underground Railroad for escaped slaves;
• is associated with historically important persons (criterion "b"), for example, Monticello being associated with Thomas Jefferson;
• is an example of historically important design or artistic merit (criterion "c"), for example, a through truss highway bridge; or
• has the potential to yield important information on prehistory or history (criterion "d"), for example, an archaeological site that can yield information about prehistoric Native American life ways.

After these four criteria have been established, one must then look at the integrity of the property. There needs to be, “integrity of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association.” In laymen’s terms, it needs to be decided whether the cultural resource is in good enough condition to be protected on the National Register.

When properties are not eligible by themselves, they may be eligible collectively as a historic district. The National Register criteria assume great importance in the US because any location deemed to meet one or more of these criteria is usually treated more carefully than a location that is not deemed to meet any of these locations.